What can he Lifebloom for you?

Turn and face the strain May 6, 2008

Well, things have been going downhill in Halo lately. We had already been struggling for months just to get our raids going every week, and then we lost six major raiders in just one month. A week or two ago, a lot of our members began looking into other guilds and applying to other guilds. I am one of those members.

I had submitted an application to the guild Eye of The Storm on Bonechewer. Progression-wise they are far ahead of Halo (SSC clear, 3/4 TK, 2/5 MH, 1/9 BT), so I was worried about how they would view my gear and raiding experience. However, my application was well-received, and last night I was invited on a trial run with them to Hyjal.

Surprisingly, I had a couple of people welcome me via tell. They introduced themselves and we made some small talk while the raid got put together. After we zoned in, a lot of people complimented me on my gear … I guess it really isn’t that bad, heh. Overall, it was just a great experience to raid as part of a well put together group again. In EoTS, the raid is organized meticulously, with many players belonging in set groups (i.e., tanks in group one with a tree and an aff lock, healers in group two with a shadow priest, etc.).

I made some stupid mistakes on Rage Winterchill (not popping my PVP trinket fast enough on the first attempt, and running from one end of Death and Decay to the other instead of running out of it on the second attempt), but we did get him down on our second try. Anetheron was just a joke of a fight compared to all the dangers of Rage. I was lucky enough to be positioned right beside the add tank, so when I got targeted with Inferno all I had to do was move a couple of steps to my right. We one-shotted that bizzo:

Anetheron dropped Pillar of Ferocity, and I was the only druid in the raid who didn’t have it. So guess what? I got my first piece of loot out of Hyjal already! Sure, it’s completely useless to me as it’s a feral staff, but just look at how sexy it looks!

We called it quits in Hyjal after a couple of wipes on the Horde Camp trash. That stuff is definitely a whole new kind of nasty, and I think if we’re going to keep up we have to involve the Tauren Warriors and Thrall to a greater extent.

Anyway, no matter what happens with EoTS, it was a great privilege to run with such a solid group of players. It was a privilege to run with leaders who are able to say, “Stop fucking around and get your acts together,” and to have the raid actually respond to it instead of QQing about it. I will be online again tonight to see if they need me to go back to Hyjal with them … I can’t wait!